The sights and sounds of the Cal State University San Marcos campus mirror the school's athletic program. Banging hammers and grinding saws echo among the steel and concrete skeletons of half-erected buildings, clashing with the school's clean aesthetic.

CSU San Marcos is a work in progress, much like its athletic department.

“I like to build things,” new Athletic Director Tom Seitz said last week. “Are there challenges and obstacles? Yes, of course. But there is also something very satisfying about setting something in motion and seeing it through.”

Seitz, 50, takes over for Steve Nichols, who served as athletic director for five years and is returning to the school's political science department.

Seitz has set an ambitious timeline for his first few years on the job. Within days of his hiring in May, he filed paperwork for CSU San Marcos to join the NCAA as a Division II program. The process will take at least three years, but it's a critical first step toward moving the program out of NAIA obscurity and into an NCAA conference.

“Right now we're in limbo, and that's no way for a program to grow,” Seitz said. “We're a ship at sea without a rudder.”

The shelves in his office are empty and the walls are bare. There are no photographs of his wife, Karen, or his children, Taylor and Brad, on the desk. They are still in Colorado, where Seitz served as athletic director for the Falcon School District in Colorado Springs.

While searching for a new house — he slept in the dorms his first week on the job — and learning the difference between state Routes 78 and 76, Seitz has begun to put his five-year plan in motion.

Some of his vision might be called pie in the sky — during his interview, Seitz proposed a timelinethat included three NCAA championships by 2015.

“If we could even come close to realizing that picture, I'd be really happy,” Seitz said.

With a limited endowment and small alumni base — the campus opened in 1988 and the athletics program started in 1998 — the school and Seitz will look to the community for financial support. Seitz has the backing of veteran track and cross country coach Steve Scott, who completed his 10th year with the Cougars this spring.

“I think in the long term it's the right step,” Scott said. “It's going to be good for fundraising opportunities, and I think it's good exposure for the school.

“To be honest, the NAIA does not get any exposure or respect. We're going to need to move in that direction. And to be in the CCAA makes a lot of sense. It also means we'll have to increase the scholarship budget, which will help my program. Adding basketball gives students more things to participate in. We're still very much a commuter campus.”

Before his job in Colorado Springs, Seitz served as athletic director at the University of Jacksonville and Jacksonville State and has worked with the U.S. Olympic Committee overseeing men's water polo.

“Without having a plan that everybody buys into and knows what you are shooting for, you really don't have a road map of where you want to go,” Seitz said. “Having a plan is first and foremost.”